The Offspring

by J.N. Williamson

In a huge house in a suburb of a midwestern city live a little girl named Peg, her older brother Eric, their beautiful mother, distinguished grandfather - and one other. Like Eric and Peg, the fifth member of the family is Elizabeth Porter's child, but there the resemblance ends. For this child was conceived thousands of years ago. It is a child of infinite cunning, infinite evil, an evil as old as time. Its powers are beyond the capacity of men's minds to comprehend or control. If it is not destroyed, one day it will rule the world. THE OFFSPRING: If anything can stop it, it has yet to be born.

Genres: Horror, Fiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1984

About the author

Gerald Neal Williamson (April 17, 1932 - December 8, 2005) wrote and edited horror stories under the name J. N. Williamson. He also wrote under the name Julian Shock.

Born in Indianapolis, IN he graduated from Shortridge High School. He studied journalism at Butler University. He published his first novel in 1979 and went on to publish more than 40 novels and 150 short stories. In 2003 he received a lifetime achievement award from the Horror Writers of America. He edited the critically acclaimed How to Write Tales of Horror, Fantasy & Science Fiction (1987) which covered the themes of such writing and cited the writings of such writers as Robert Bloch, Lee Prosser, Richard Matheson, Ray Bradbury, H. P. Lovecraft, August Derleth, William F. Nolan, and Stephen King. Many important writers in the genre contributed to the book. Williamson edited the popular anthology series, Masques. Some of his novels include The Ritual (1979), Playmates (1982), Noonspell (1991), The Haunt (1999), among others.

He was also a well known Sherlockian and received his investiture (The Illustrious Client) in the Baker Street Irregulars in 1950.

Source: Wikipedia

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has a kind of rushed feeling; it was published in the early '80s when publishers just couldn't find enough horror to ride the wave and fill the shelves, and as a result many awful books appeared. I suspect the author didn't have time to do with it what he initially intended. Once you get through an absolutely terrible prolog, it turns into a nice enough Gothic-influenced story.

[Kenneth McKinley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eric and Peg live with their ex-senator grandfather in a large, old house in an Indianapolis neighborhood. Their mysteriously ill mother also lives there where she is rarely seen and holes up in her room. And then there is Lynn. Lynn is an unseen "sibling" that their grandfather rescued from the middle east to raise in their home. Eric and Peg have never seen Lynn and their dominating grandfather demands absolute quiet and solitude as he "tudors" the young genius Lynn. Tension slowly builds as anyone that questions Lynn's existance meet an untimely death or disappearance. The two children try to piece together what is going on before they become the next victims.

The Offspring is a shadowy offering with an interesting premise and lots of Gothic atmosphere that slowly builds to what we think is going to be a big payday of an ending. No such luck. Unfortunately, the ending raises more questions than it answers and ends up being a muddled mess that doesn't make much sense. Its really too bad because Williamson's storytelling has always been his biggest strength. In The Offspring, it seemed he had some good ideas that attemtped to grown, but, alas, never bore fruit.

3 1/2 out of 5 stars


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[Addy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book started good in the beginning, but towards the middle and end, it just kinda dragged and bored me. Not enough going on to keep my interest. I hope his other books are better cause I sure have a lot of them!

[Jeff Jellets · Rating 2 out of 5]

Should have kept the sarcophagus closed …

So .., in J.N. Williamson’s The Offspring, an ambitious ex-Senator uncovers an ancient mummy … so far so good … that is pregnant … uh, okay … with a still living fetus … say what? … that the Senator promptly adopts and takes home … because it’s been irradiated by ‘star’ energy that seems responsible for triggering the start of Sumerian civilization? … and the baby grows into a corpulent, telepathic, cannibalistic, pedophilic, hermaphrodite … so some really bad parenting there … that the Senator plans to use to rule the world.

Enter Eric (twelve!) and Peg (nine!), the crafty Senator’s grandkids, who in between trips to the library must uncover the secret of ‘the thing in the locked bedroom’!

Ugh … this one … not so good. The plot is a mess of elements that never actually come together, and while big ideas are discussed, the setting is a small-scale haunted house story, dully paced with adult characters as dimwitted as busted light bulbs. Maybe if the story had been played for sheer shlock this might have worked – an over-the-top cross between Basket Case and V.C. Andrews’ Flowers in the Attic -- but Williamson plays the whole tale with a dead faced seriousness, eschewing scares for some heavy handed pseudo-science that make it a real chore to get to the climatic end: grandkids verses monster!

Who … and I’ll just spoil this for you … because you really don’t need to read this one … dispatch the titular creature by poking a hole in his/her oxygen tent.

Final Verdict: A skip even for diehard fans of B-grade horror (and below). Not unreadable, but just not worth the effort.

[[on hiatus, probably forever] The rockabilly werewolf from Mars · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was bad even by the relatively low standards of J. N. Williamson novels.

[Kevin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not a fan at all. A mishmash of scientific and anthropological mumbo jumbo that doesn't even pretend to make sense.

[BRANDON · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Offspring has been on my reading list for ever. The incongruity of the cover art and title peaked my curiosity. The story is built on a solid, gothic bedrock. A mysterious relative in a locked room, an ailing mother touched by madness, a matronly housekeeper with dubious loyalties, these are all solid gothic tropes. Williamson pushed beyond the essentially gothic story by adding a touch of modern strangeness. I think I would have been satisfied if Williamson has stuck to the formula, a similar opinion I had when reading my first book by Williamson, Horror House. Regardless, I wouldn't have felt quite so opposed to Williamson's interpretation of the trope if the final description of Lynn hasn't been so dated and offensive. As an obese androgyn, I was disappointed in Lynn's depiction as a hideous monster. It was all king of ableist and transphobic.

[Jacob Brewer · Rating 2 out of 5]

For the most part the book was Okay. Didn't really grab me. The characters were really vested in the importance of the "Offspring" but just didn't feel realistically plausible to me. On the plus side the book was an easy read, not overly complicated or feeling the need to throw in a bunch of science and research to authenticate the "Offspring". That is except for the Prologue. The Prologue was too long and was the basic clichés of the former teacher and student arguing over different points of view. The Prologue was also all exposition between the two characters.

[Glenna Mcneal]

This book is mind-boggling. To think someone would discover a being during an archaeological dig that would be trained and become a threat to the world as we know it. The book keeps your attention and certainly is spine-chilling. Williamson weaves a good story.

[Douglas Castagna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent opening but petered out. Like many horror novels of the era, the opening started off strong and seemed to be going in a fascinating direction but when it got to "present day" it had no steam. Though there are some nice touches throughout I was disappointed.

[Stacy Simpson · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was absolutely dreadful! DONT READ IT!